India, Bangladesh swap border enclaves, settle old dispute
At the stroke of midnight Friday, tens of thousands of stateless people who were stranded for decades along the poorly defined border between India and Bangladesh will finally get to choose their citizenship, as the two countries swapped more than 150 pockets of land to settle the demarcation line dividing them.
Television images showed people bursting firecrackers and raising an Indian flag in the Masaldanga enclave, which became part of India.
External Affairs Ministry in a statement described July 31 as a historic day for both India and Bangladesh as “it marks the resolution of a complex issue that has lingered since independence” from British colonialists in 1947.
Nearly 37,000 people lived in 111 Indian enclaves inside Bangladesh, while 14,000 lived in 51 Bangladeshi enclaves in India.These people are getting citizenship of their choice.
The boundary agreement between the two countries took effect at midnight on Friday.
Relations between India and its smaller neighbour Bangladesh have significantly improved since Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina promised that her administration would not allow India’s separatist insurgents to use the porous 4,000-kilometre border to carry out raids in India.
Aided by India, Bangladesh gained independence from Pakistan following a bloody nine-month war in 1971. The boundary dispute has been lingering since British colonialists carved Pakistan out of India in 1947, and granted independence to the two countries.
None from Bangladeshi enclaves within India opted for Bangladesh, while 979 people from Indian enclaves living inside Bangladesh applied for Indian citizenship, said Akhteruzzman Azad, chief government administrator at Kurigram district in Bangladesh.
The region is 240 kilometres north of Dhaka, the Bangladesh capital.
The shifting of the people to the Indian side would be completed by November this year.
The two neighbouring countries are implementing the Land Boundary Agreement in line with a deal signed in 1974, and approved by the Parliament recently.
Centre to pump Rs. 70,000 cr. into PSU banks
The Modi government on Friday announced a big-bucks boost to investments in the economy. Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told Parliament that the Centre will over the next four years infuse Rs.70,000 crore out of budgetary allocations into state-owned banks.
Later, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha told reporters that the proposed National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) that the Union Cabinet had approved on Wednesday will make equity investments of Rs. 20,000 crore every year in commercially viable long gestation projects which will help to kick-start the economy.
The Centre will own 49 per cent of this new Mumbai-based fund, which won’t be answerable to Parliament nor audited by the CAG. It will be run on a commercialbasis by managers, who will be paid globally competitive salaries.
Non-salaried ITR forms out
The Central Board of Direct Taxes ( CBDT) has notified the revised income tax (I-T) return forms for non-salaried individuals for the assessment year 2015-16 (financial year 2014-15, which ended as of March 31, 2015).
Forms ITR-3 to ITR 7 have been prescribed for tax payers such as sole proprietors (businessmen or professionals), limited liability partnerships, partnership firms, Hindu Undivided Families (HUFs) and companies (see table).
Companies are required to file their tax return using Form ITR-6, which as compared to earlier years calls for a plethora of additional disclosures. Some of these disclosures such as corporate social responsibility (CSR) expenditure relate to new regulations applicable to India Inc for the first time during the FY 2014-15 others have been introduced to enable tax authorities to keep better track of overseas assets and income. The latter, could help tax authorities detect money laundering.
Ashwin presented with Arjuna Award
Union Sports Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Friday gave away the Arjuna Award to R. Ashwin. The off-spinner was unable to make it to the National Sports Awards function on August 29 last year as he was in England playing the One-Day International series.
Dressed in the traditional maroon-coloured blazer designed for Arjuna awardees, Ashwin received the award at a special function organised in the chamber of the Sports Minister here. The award includes a bronze statuette, a citation and Rs. five lakh.
After receiving the honour, the off-spinner uploaded pictures of the function on his Twitter account and said, “A proud moment in life. Received the award from the honourable minister of state (independent charge) Shri Sarbananda Sonowal.”
Ashwin, 28, was the 48th cricketer to receive the prestigious award. He emerged as a dependable bowler in all formats of the game, capturing 124 wickets (apart from scoring 1009 runs, including two hundreds) in 25 Tests, 139 scalps in 99 ODIs and 25 in 26 T20 Internationals.
Ashwin, who took 18 matches to complete 100 Test wickets, became the fastest Indian to reach the milestone in November 2013, edging past spin legend Erapalli Prasanna (20 Tests).
He is the fifth fastest bowler in Test history to bag 100 wickets.
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